Plato’s Politeia as the Pathology of Polis

Abstract

In this short essay, I try to answer the question of what the main theme of Plato’s Republic is. The dialogue is the most popular text in ancient literature. The title of the dialogue is
deceptive. Republic means city state and despite the title, it is a purely political piece of writing, the dialogue contains a small section on justice and governance, but it is mostly a work of literature, an ancient novel inspired by Plato’s frustration with the restoration of democracy in Athens. After the Peloponnesian War, the restored democratic system condemned Plato’s beloved master, Socrates to death in a conceptual process. According to my hypothesis, the Republic of Plato was a philosophical memorial to Socrates and the story was a kind of an uchronia, with the philosopher king in the main role. The Republic is a kind of enchiridion that answers the question of how the city state could rebuild itself.